It is known to provide a gun with one or more damping devices to give the recoiling parts of the gun a controlled deceleration when firing a shot. Guns of a larger caliber are in addition often provided with a muzzle brake mounted at the muzzle end of the gun barrel, serving to reverse the direction of a part of the gas flowing out behind a launched shell and thus absorb a part of the recoil forces. However, when a projectile leaves the gun barrel, the pressure of gas against the muzzle brake causes the barrel to be stretched in its longitudinal direction and the barrel is then driven into longitudinal natural vibrations or oscillations. These natural vibrations, having a frequency depending directly on the geometric design of the gun barrel and the material from which the barrel is made, are transferred to the recoil brake of the gun.
Measurements have shown that the natural vibrations of a gun barrel may cause the momentary value of the force supplied to the recoil brake to vary nearly .+-.100% about an average value, which corresponds substantially to the recoil force from the shell discharge itself. As a result, the maximum material tensions are also increased accordingly. When exposed to a combination of oscillating force strain and high material tensions, the risk of material fatigue is always present.
Hence, an object of the present invention is to provide an elastic vibration damper for a damping device of the type initially described, to appreciably prevent the natural vibrations of the gun barrel from propagating to the recoil brake of the gun when firing a shot.